The Quill/Joanna Mizak
By Liz Hammond Staff writer
The annual senior graphic design and studio arts major exhibition opened in Lore Degenstein Gallery on March 25, where faculty, students and families crowded into the space to participate in the formal launch of the show.
The exhibition’s theme, “Polychrome,” showcases all 11 graphic design and studio art seniors. The students brought together the ideas and designs that they wanted to be on show for the exhibition, and they started working on putting it together in the fall of this year.
Every student could pick eight pieces to showcase.
“I think the show is really unique because…we’re obviously bringing in graphic design and putting it up on the walls in the galleries on its own,” senior Eileen Gonzalez said. “That’s not something that’s done.”
At the exhibition, Jordyn Avery, one of the senior artists, explained all the pieces that she had on display.
A few highlights of the pieces that she chose were her fully designed magazine, as well as her Byrd House Market posters that were created for a farmer’s market.
Along with these pieces, Avery displayed her trifold stationery for a distillery, which included envelopes and business cards.
She also decided to showcase her three ads for the TV show “Shark Week,” with the tagline “Something’s Coming.”
“I chose the eight pieces that I’m proudest of,” Avery said. “The projects that have taken me the longest and challenged me the most but have turned out better than I could have expected.”
Avery added: “This is our Oscars. We have worked for four years on countless projects over thousands of hours in the graphic design lab. The result is a set of our best and proudest works on display.”
Morgan Sattler, another one of the senior artists, explained how she chose all of her eight displayed pieces.
“My best projects have been from the past two years, since junior year is where you really grow as a designer, so there were many revisions put into certain projects to make it our best,” Sattler said.
“By the start of our last semester, we definitely know which ones were our favorite pieces.” She added, “These projects really stood out to me as what I see myself working on in the real world.”
Abigail Johnson was also willing to explain her exhibit.
Johnson said, “I chose my pieces based on what I believed were my best works and also my favorites.”
“Since this is a show for not only ourselves but our family, friends and faculty members I really wanted people to see what my favorite things I have created over the years were,” Johnson continued.
When asked if the graphic design program helped these students, those who responded said yes.
Sattler said, “I cannot imagine going to any other program than Susquehanna’s graphic design program. The professors, as well as the friends in the department here, have made this place my second home. The advice from professors and peers have been influential to us becoming the best designer we can be.”
Johnson said something along similar lines about the program at Susquehanna.
“In all honesty I do not know where I would be if it weren’t for the graphic design program here at Susquehanna,” she said.
Though the gallery focused a lot on the graphic design majors, it also showcased work from many studio art majors.
“I was very appreciative of the studio art majors,” Gonzalez said. “It’s very different compared to other years.”
Gonzalez explained that it was a different experience attending this specific gallery.
“Seeing how different it can go from the pieces of clothing we have hung up [in the gallery] to the giant sculpture as well as the more traditional paintings,” Gonzalez added, “it’s something [that] I don’t think has really been done before.”
